


The Welcoming Committee

by CanaryCry



Series: Human Connection [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), Grayson (Comics)
Genre: Break Up, Deception, Established Relationship, Forgiveness, Heartbreak, Lies, M/M, Protectiveness, Reconciliation, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-01
Updated: 2015-10-01
Packaged: 2018-04-24 07:42:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4911049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanaryCry/pseuds/CanaryCry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick makes his return to Spyral but, before he gets there, he is intercepted by the last person he wanted to see: the man who broke his heart. (Can be read as a sequel to Human Connection, but it's not necessary since that fic isn't referenced.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Welcoming Committee

**Author's Note:**

> Implied sexytimes near the end but it's safe for work.

Dick wasn't expecting anyone to be waiting for him when he got off the plane. He knew his orders. He could make his own way to the meeting point. He breezed through customs with his carry-on, and only, baggage; security had been bribed to look the other way when it came to his equipment. Aside from that equipment, he hadn't taken a whole lot with him. Alfred had persuaded him to take some family photographs, since Spyral knew everything about him already. There was no real risk there, aside from maybe one of his superiors deciding it was too sentimental and burning the images of his loved ones in front of his eyes.

He made it outside before a large hand seized his arm. Dick tensed instinctively and looked up to find Tiger gazing down at him. The crease between his eyebrows probably wouldn't have seemed unusual to somebody who only knew him superficially, but Dick could tell that was a concerned crease, not his usual 'I hate everyone' crease.

“I wasn't expecting a welcoming committee,” Dick said, keeping his voice flat. Tiger hadn't tried to stop him from leaving. He hadn't even pretended Dick's absence would affect him.

“Well,” Tiger replied, “here I am.”

“I take it you're not happy to see me?” Dick tried to inject some humour into his tone, as if the observation would be less painful if he could pretend it was all a joke.

“No, I am not.” Tiger took Dick's bags and headed towards a jeep parked nearby. He threw the bags in the back of the car while Dick climbed into the passanger seat, grateful for the few seconds to compose himself after Tiger's response. He hadn't expected a response at all, to be honest. Maybe an eye roll. But definitely not outright agreement. He should've known better, considering the conversation they'd had when Dick was packing to leave Spyral in the first place.

“ _Are you going to tell me to stay?” Dick said quietly, folding his last shirt._

“ _No.” Tiger shut the door, but didn't move further into the room._

_Dick almost laughed, choking on his own bitterness. “Of course not. We knew this would end one day.”_

“ _It is for the best,” Tiger replied._

“ _Whatever.” Dick stacked his shirt on top of the rest of his clothes in his duffle bag. “I meant it. I'm done.”_

“ _I know.”_

Tiger climbed into the driver's seat, the slam of the car door jarring Dick back to the present. “You were early. We have time to eat before reporting in.”

Dick's stomach grumbled in response, robbing him of the chance to turn Tiger down. “Fine,” he muttered instead.

They got takeout in the city and Tiger drove them to a safehouse near the rendezvous point. Tiger insisted Dick not wait to eat, so his food was finished by the time they got there.

They sat in the run-down kitchen and Tiger pushed another box towards him. “Eat. You had a long flight.”

Dick raised an eyebrow at him. “They do feed us on commercial flights, you know.”

“Eat.” He refused to discuss anything until Dick had opened the box and eaten half a kebab.

Dick swallowed a mouthful. “Happy now?”

“No.”

“Right. I forgot. You're never happy.”

“That is not...” Tiger sighed. “I deserved that. And I deserve worse.”

“I never took you for a mashochist, Tiger,” Dick said, starting on a second kebab. “Aren't you going to eat something?”

Tiger took a kebab of his own. “I was unkind to you the night you left.”

“You need to actually show emotions to be unkind, T.” That was what had bothered Dick the most about that night. Tiger hadn't given him anything to work with. Just a blank stare and a blank voice. “I get it. You wanted me to leave. I don't blame you.”

The end of Tiger's kebab snapped. He put it down.

“I did not want you to feel conflicted,” he said.

_Dick found the bag's zipper, rubbing it between his fingers. “So, this is it? After everything we've been through, you're just going to stand there?” Dick wouldn't miss this hellhole, but he would miss Tiger. And it stung that, apparently, the feeling wasn't returned._

“ _It is for the best,” Tiger repeated. “Do you have transportation? I can—”_

“ _I'll find my way.” Dick zipped up the bag. If he had to spend more time with this cold, unfeeling version of Tiger he'd hoped he would never have to witness again after they'd gotten together, he didn't know what he'd do._

Tiger's hand came down on top of Dick's. “Are you all right?”

Dick pulled his hand away before he started liking the contact too much. “I'm fine.” The unsteadiness of his voice betrayed him.

“I did miss you,” Tiger admitted.

“How nice.” Dick's voice was filled with acid. He didn't mean to lash out—really, he didn't—but he was fast approaching his limit. It was too late. Either Tiger was lying to salvage their working relationship now that Dick was back, or he had lied by way of omission when Dick was leaving.

“You were unhappy in Spyral,” Tiger said. Dick could feel the weight of his gaze, but he refused to meet it. “I thought, if you believed I would not miss you—”

“That I'd hurry up and leave so you could get a partner who's actually cut out for this?” Dick snapped. “Well, newsflash, buddy: I don't even want to be here. Spyral threatened to expose Batman's identity if I didn't come back.”

“That sounds like them.”

“Of course it does,” Dick shot back. “Because Spyral is full of _assholes_.”

“Like me,” Tiger said.

“Congratulations. You can read between the lines.”

“Is this outburst helping you?” Tiger asked. “I am willing to accept your insults if it is.”

“Gee, thanks.” Dick pushed away from the table. He needed space. Away from Tiger. “I need some air.”

“I lied that night,” Tiger called before he'd gotten too far.

Dick paused in the doorframe. “I thought we'd already established that.”

Tiger got up and crossed the room to invade Dick's personal space. “I thought you would be safer away from Spyral.”

Dick could feel his eyebrows threatening to hit the ceiling. “ _That's_ the reason? Really?”

“Yes.” Tiger reached for Dick's hand again. Dick allowed it this time. “I thought it was weakness when we first met. I had no patience for your refusal to take extreme action. I know you better now.”

“And?”

“You are not weak,” Tiger admitted. “But you are not the kind of person who thrives inside Spyral. You...” Tiger surveyed the space around them, visibly searching for the right words. “You have too much heart. You care too much about people who must suffer for the greater good.”

“I just happen to think the 'greater good' shouldn't leave leave a trail of undeserving corpses in its wake,” Dick retorted.

“Yes. I have come to admire that about you.” Tiger lifted Dick's hand to his lips. “But it is not the attitude Spyral encourages. People like you do not last.”

“Makes you wonder why the hell they're so desperate to have me back,” Dick muttered, Agent Zero's threats towards Bruce still fresh on his mind.

“ _Will you see your family?” Tiger asked him._

“ _That's none of your business, Tiger.” Dick wasn't Spyral anymore, and he wasn't going to give the organisation any help finding him. Tiger was included in that now. “You know, once you stopped calling me names, you almost made working here tolerable.”_

_Tiger didn't respond. Dick hadn't expected him to._

_Their relationship had been a mistake. This wasn't news to either of them. Dick wasn't cut out to be a spy. Tiger was. Feelings never should have entered the equation. They knew it would end in heartbreak, but, against all logic, they'd fallen together anyway._

_Dick lifted the bag onto his shoulder. “If we see each other again, we'll probably be on the opposite sides of a fight. So let's try to avoid that.”_

_Tiger nodded. Just once._

“Spyral's intentions will emerge in time,” Tiger said against Dick's knuckles.

“Until then, business as usual?” Dick meant more than just official business, and he knew Tiger well enough to know he'd figure that out.

“Yes.” Tiger kissed each of Dick's knuckles. “Am I forgiven?”

“I don't know,” Dick said quietly. Tiger's apparent rejection that night had cut him deeper than he'd expected.

Tiger's eyes were gentle as he met Dick's over their joined hands. “I hurt you.”

“Guess I'm too soft for more than just Spyral, huh?” Dick tried for humour, but it just sounded pathetic. And needy. And maybe a little bit broken.

Tiger used his grip on Dick's hand to pull him into an embrace. “I made a mistake,” he said softly. “I should have told you the truth.”

Dick chuckled wetly. “Self-sacrificing to the point of ridiculousness? You'd fit in with my family better than you'd think.”

“If your family is like you,” Tiger said, “then I do not mind the comparison. Don't tell Helena.”

“My lips are sealed.”

_Dick tried not to meet his eyes. He really did. But he'd always had a weak spot when it came to that man. But there was nothing in Tiger's eyes to indicate this was as hard for him as it was for Dick. Of course there wasn't. Tiger had probably put those feelings away in a little corner of his mind where they could die in peace, assuming they had existed in the first place._

_Dick stepped towards the door. Against Dick's expectations, however, Tiger stepped in his path and planted a quick kiss on his lips. Uncharacteristically chaste._

“ _Travel safely,” Tiger said, moving out of the way._

“ _Yeah. Thanks.” Dick turned the doorknob and refused to look back._

Tiger slotted his lips against Dick's, sliding his tongue into Dick's mouth at his earliest opportunity. The kiss quickly took a turn for the dirty, like they always did. Well, nearly always.

“I love you,” Tiger whispered.

Dick was too raw to say it back right now. “How much time do we have?”

“We have enough.” Tiger pressed the kiss deeper and pressed Dick himself up against the nearest wall. “Let me take care of you.”

Things weren't right. Maybe they were never going to be right again. But Tiger was warm and gentle with him in a way he wasn't with anyone else. And it was soothing to let Tiger take care of him in his own, unique way, which tended to involve a lot of nudity. Dick's favourite kind of caretaking.

Dick let himself forget about his terrible situation for a while. He had Tiger back, at least for a time, and everyone back home was supporting him now. He could do this. He wouldn't let it get to him again.


End file.
